Monday, May 3, 2010

Tips for Flirting with People Behind the Desk

I'm not really going to get into specifics, but I have a job where I work behind a desk. My job is helping you find stuff, and I am supposed to be friendly and open and cheery and I happen to dress kinda cute most of the time. People... some people... don't get that this is my job and I am like that to everyone. Ladies in my profession are frequently the object of Craigslist Missed Connections and all sorts of other misplaced crushes. Just because you have a card with my e-mail on it: don't send me drunken fanmail emails at 12:30 a.m. on a Sunday because I DON'T have a clue who you are.

I recently found myself flirting with a really really cute guy. He was at his work. It happened to be at a phone place, so in order to test my phone service he called my phone... like three times... just to check. Now, honestly, the last thing I need in my life is ANOTHER guy to muck up the works, but Rebound Mojo is a bitch. Instead of dwelling on my overwhelming knee-jerk reaction to text him, I am going to write a posting.

Tips for Flirting with People Behind the Desk.

1. This person is at work.
2. This person is probably bored.
3. This person is providing you with excellent customer service.
4. This person probably has a supervisor watching them.
5. This is first and foremost a commercial or educational interaction.
6. Any personal information gleaned from this exchange is null and void for personal use.
7. The way to ask someone out on a date is to ASK THEM OUT ON A DATE.

9 comments:

Yeah, people think waitresses hate being hit on. Not necessarily. Flirt a little bit, don't waste too much of her time, tip well and ask her out. She may say yes, she may say no. But she won't be irritated if you're not a jerk about it.

hahaha...Love it! Especially since I work behind a desk polishing my customer service skills on a daily basis. I tend to be "overly informative" when it comes to my personal life with callers. hahaha But I've actually met and befriended a few of the callers. i.e. a coworker in Texas who shares the same name, another coworker in a different department, etc. I don't think I flirt, because that's awkward, but I am very nice and have gotten a lot of praise for it. Thanks for writing this! xo

I know how you feel! While I haven't gotten any emails from my behind the desk encounters, I do get annoyed by people who just hang around the desk too long hoping for god knows what. I'm at work, please either ask for my personal number and call to ask me out later or leave, right? Hope it works out with the phone guy ;) He might be worth a shot.-Delilah

As a dating coach and a guy who has been meeting women at work for years now, I'd like to give my 2 cents.

The person who's doing the working doesn't know if you're being nice or trying to create attraction when you tease them.

The person who's talking to the worker has the exact same problem: is it being nice or being flirty?

So, the best advice I can give you is: be direct. Most people have supervisors who don't want people to talk to customers for half an hour, so be really direct.

Example:

"You sound like a person who likes to have fun and who doesn't take crap from anyone, just like me. I like that. Let's exchange phone numbers so we can continue this conversation when your boss is NOT stalking you."

It's direct and it's done in a fun way. Plus, it sounds far from desperate :-)

It's always flattering to have someone flirt with you in the workplace, even if it's poorly executed. I had to work on a construction site once, and one of the workers essentially asked if I'd be interested in bearing his children because his wife was infertile! Crazy, but in a way, still flattering...

I think it really depends the tone that the flirting is done-I mean, I've waited tables, and even though I knew flirting would probably mean a bigger tip, I still couldn't help but feel disgusted if a guy was really overt about it.

The WORST was actual touching. Maybe some women have a higher tolerance for that kind of thing, but I could not stand it!

Some guy tried to give me a backrub today... like this is a petting zoo. If he was to ask me out he'd find I wasn't interested, but the assumption game has better odds. I had to go into "that is personal space and thank you for respecting it" with him. This is one of those days that I just want a boyfriend standing there glowering at them.

When I was in my late 20's, I had lots of admirers be it at work or in my own neighborhood yet still I refuse to got with some of them because I was afraid they might hurt me or something until the one destined for me arrived and he really took my breath away at first glance.